Rauchstubenhaus vulgo Giefer, Pichlhofen

The Rauchstubenhaus stands in Pichlhofen, a village in the municipality of Sankt Georgen ob Judenburg in the Murtal district of Styria. It is a farmhouse with a traditional smoke kitchen, protected as a listed building. Finds of ore and slag around the house point to past mining activity. The present look dates mainly from the mid-17th century. Until recently it was still lived in and used as a working farm. Its layout—living chambers, smoke kitchen and workrooms with a large bread oven—reflects the rural way of life once common in Upper Styria. The walls show the historic materials and building methods once widespread in the countryside. Visitors see the simple, functional arrangement of a working farm from earlier centuries.